Local theater: Atomic action

Science and morality

Fermilab physicist Michael Albrow directs Vex Theatre Company’s production of “Copenhagen,” Michael Frayn’s play inspired by the September 1941 meeting between Danish scientist Niels Bohr and German scientist Werner Hiessenberg, seminal figures in the development of atomic theory. Frayn’s play examines what might have transpired between them, and asks the question: What is the moral obligation of the scientist during wartime?

Opens Friday, Sept. 16, at the Elgin Art Showcase, 164 Division St., Elgin. (847) 991-8081 or vextheatre.org.

The show must go on

Brothers working as stage hands for a World War II USO show spring into action when they get word that chicken pox has sidelined the headlining Andrews Sisters. Unwilling to disappoint the troops, Lawrence, Patrick and Max don wigs and skirts to give the boys a show in the Metropolis Performing Arts Centre’s “The Andrews Brothers.”

Previews begin Thursday, Sept. 22, at 111 W. Campbell St., Arlington Heights. The show opens Sept. 25. (847) 577-2121 or metropolisarts.com.

O’Neill revisited

Remy Bumppo opens its 15th season with Gordon Edelstein’s adaptation of Eugene O’Neill’s “Orestia”-inspired tragedy, “Mourning Becomes Electra.” The company’s new artistic director Timothy Douglas directs the drama about a daughter determined to reclaim her family’s honor following a mother’s betrayal.

Previews continue through Sunday, Sept. 25, at the Greenhouse Theater Center, 2257 N. Lincoln Ave., Chicago. The show opens Monday, Sept. 26. (773) 404-7336 or remybumppo.org.